As world leaders try to strike a deal at the climate talks in Paris, much of the discussion revolves around the global economy. WWNO’s Tegan Wendland reports from Paris on a movement to scale back investment in fossil fuels, or stop it altogether.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, and other international finance groups said in a statement that a “transformation of the world’s entire economic system” is needed in order to meet the climate change goals set at this conference.
Meanwhile, protesters disrupted the conference by chanting in the main thoroughfare. They say progress on global climate change will only happen by stopping investments in fossil fuels.
Yugratna Srivastava is a student activist from India who says her country is polluted because of its heavy reliance on oil and coal. She and fellow activists threw a giant silver balloon on a string up in the air.
”This is a big carbon bubble that we are just trying to leave out in the air – that we don’t need it anymore," she says. "We are trying to indicate the carbon emissions, the carbon dioxide, the greenhouses gases that are present that are actually raising the temperature and are causing all of the climate change and things in the world.”
She wants business and government to stop investing in that so-called dirty energy through a process called “divestment.”
Hoda Baraka with the environmental group 350.org says it’s one useful tool to create social, political and financial change. Divestment is the opposite of investment, she says, a withdrawing of funds as a way to take a stance, "politically, socially and environmentally.”
Divestment had a big impact in the 1970s and 80s in South Africa. American university students lobbied their colleges to divest in South Africa and its companies, which ultimately played an important role in ending apartheid there.
At a press conference, 350.org announced that 500 institutions have committed to divest so far.
One of those is the state of California. California state senator Kevin De Leon led efforts to direct money from state pension plans away from coal, to the tune of half a trillion dollars.
“We know that coal combustion for energy is the leading cause of global climate change," he said. "Burning coal is also the leading cause of smog, acid rain and toxic air pollution that contributes to respiratory diseases like asthma and emphysema.”
He says it’s also just a smart business choice.
“Coal is a risky investment that is rapidly losing value.”
You’d be hard-pressed to find someone at this global climate summit who would disagree. But in Louisiana, where our economy is so heavily reliant on fossil fuels, environmental activists face a challenge in trying to convince universities to stop investing in them.
Emma Collin is an organizer with the Louisiana group Gulf South Rising, which sent a group to the climate talks. She worked with Tulane University students who want the school to divest.
The university’s endowment invests in lots of industries. At a meeting with Tulane leadership Collin says university leaders told the students that if they really sat down and addressed every concern of with each investment, that the university could not invest in anything.
"So what’s making fossil fuels so special?" they asked.
"And we were like, ‘the future of New Orleans, our university!’" said Collin. "I think divestment is also a powerful tactic because the deeper you get into it the more it really challenges this larger economic system.”
So far they have not convinced Tulane to divest, but Collin says they’re still trying.
Environmentalist and author Bill Mckibben says Louisiana faces certain challenges, but no one expects to change the whole economic system overnight.
“What people [in Louisiana] need to understand is that the world is changing extraordinarily fast," he said. "Young people around the world are divesting from fossil fuel, they’re building the next economy and Louisiana happily is situated to play in that next economy if it wants to. It’s got lots of sun and lots of wind and it could be a big part of things moving forward. Or it could watch the sea rise to the point where it will be half the state it used to be.”
In the United States, according to 350.org, more than 3.4 trillion dollars have been divested away from fossil fuels. They say divestment should play a critical role in how countries meet their pledges to decrease emissions and support clean energy.
Support for the coastal desk’s reporting from Paris is provided by the Foundation for Louisiana.
Support also comes from the Greater New Orleans Foundation, the Coypu Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation.
